Russian Orthodox Museum - May, 2008

The Russian Orthodox Museum in Anchorage was an interesting place to visit. It contains a chapel and many icons, and examples of needleworks and artifacts from 18th century Russian America to the present.

Kayak frame

Priest's garment - unbelievable bead work on it!

Chapel

Ceremonial banners

Miscellaneous artifacts and photos

This picture of St. Herman of Alaska is made entirely of small beads.

*******************

GIFT SHOP ITEMS

Portage Glacier - May 25, 2008

We went to Portage Glacier. The Begich Boggs Visitors Center which overlooks Portage Glacier is a great place to visit. It is newly remodeled and has tons of information about earthquakes, avalanches, glaciers, Alaskan wildlife and flowers and much, much more. It is the most complete source of information that we have found under one roof so far. And the video/audio presentation of the info is so interesting. The center is also quite kid-friendly, giving lots of examples and comparisons that children can understand (and therefore, the rest of us can too!)

LOTS of new snow on the route to the glacier!

Portage Glacier

This is a picture of the catamaran that will take you up close to the glacier. You can see how big the glacier is compared to the ship. The ship holds about 200 people. We hope to go back and take a cruise on this ship when their is not new snow on the glacier. It is easier to see the colors and the forms in the glacier without the snow covering.

Girdwood Moose - May 24, 2008

We stayed two nights at a wonderful Bed & Breakfast in Girdwood on Memorial Day weekend. Each morning we saw this moose with her new calf right below our deck. The host at the B&B said that the calf was just two days old, so mom had hung around the neighborhood because she gave birth in the yard next door. She knew we were watching her and taking pictures from the upper deck, but as long as we got no closer, she stayed in the yard next door.

Dip Netting Along the Seward Highway - May, 2008

As we drove along the Seward Highway, we saw many people "dip netting". They troll for fish with a net. The video at the bottom shows how it is done. It is a family activity, as you can see. We saw dozens of people trying their luck. Very few were catching any on this day. One of the fishermen allowed us to film his catch in the cooler.

Catch of the day: Hooligans. we are told they are very oily fish. You just cut off the head and cook the whole fish. There are small bones in them that you eat. You can see that they are not very big. These fish are in a picnic cooler.

Seward Highway - May 24, 2008

We drove south on Anchorage on the Seward Highway on Memorial Weekend. Our mission was to check out some more tourist-type activities and to experience more of Alaska. It was gray and rainy when we left Anchorage and it wasn't looking like it was going to be a very nice weekend. But I read in one of the tourist brochures last year that you must go ahead with your plans because rain comes and goes constantly here. We are so glad we forged ahead. As you see from the pictures, we drove out of the rain into beautiful weather. It remained like this the whole weekend. The next few posts will show you some of the things that we did.